By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Regional planners are moving ahead with a multi-million dollar redevelopment of the St. Louis riverfront.
Danforth Foundation president Peter Sortino outlined a preliminary plan Wednesday, which includes a three-block connection between downtown and the archgrounds.
Sortino says land use for restaurants and other vendors is limited because the grounds belong to the National Park Service.
Instead, he says, the plan calls for several man-made islands in the Mississippi River that could include food and beverage stands:
"If we just talked about land-based development, we'd never be able to use the riverfront during flood events," Sortino said. "But with the islands, they will rise with the flood, and those bridges or connecting paths will rise with the flood too, so you'll still be able to access the river and the islands."
The foundation will name an engineering firm in the next few days. There's no specific cost estimate at this time.